Why it matters: So deep do the distrust and divisions run that the 30th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was the first to end without a joint statement from the 21 participants. If economic barricades go up, and stay up, countries could be forced to choose between the globe’s two economic giants. “The entire world is worried," the summit's host, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill of Papua New Guinea said, per the NYT.

Vice President Pence, representing the U.S., said the Trump administration would continue to up the ante on tariffs “until China changes its ways,” and he urged countries to reject Chinese investment in favor of the U.S. That followed an interview with the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin in which Pence said it’s up to China to avoid a new Cold War, and if they won’t budge, “so be it."

President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, criticized President Trump’s “zero sum” approach: “Mankind has once again reached a crossroads. Which direction should we choose? Cooperation or confrontation?”

That question is being vigorously debated in both Beijing and Washington, including earlier this month at Brookings:

David Lampton of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies conceded that with Xi (and Trump) in power “we’re destined to have a problem,” but argued that to give up on cooperation is to strengthen hardliners and ignore areas (security, global development) where interests align.

Evan Medeiros, the NSC's senior director for Asian affairs under Barack Obama, now at Georgetown, argued, “there is a risk you make rivalry a self-fulfilling prophecy, but there’s a parallel risk of emboldening a rising power.”

As the debate rages, both countries are already working to reduce their economic interdependency, particularly when it comes to tech, notes Benjamin Charlton of Oxford Analytica:

“The Trump administration is developing new processes to limit Chinese investment, issuing regulations on dual-use technology ... imposing sanctions and 'naming and shaming.' There is every sign that it intends to do more of all this.”

“Even if a deal is reached with Washington that blunts the sharpest edges of the current trade conflict ... Beijing will likely only see this as a delaying tactic and an opportunity to make greater progress until a harder line is resumed.”

What to expect: “The endpoint if the process of economic decoupling continues will not be zero bilateral trade and investment as in the Cold War, but rather a gradual separation of the global tech industry along political lines over the next 5–10 years.”

All of this sets the stage for Trump and Xi's first meeting since the trade war kicked off, to be held at the G20 (Nov. 30–Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires).

Axios contributor Bill Bishop writes: “The best case scenario appears to be a tariff ceasefire with some sort of framework deal to keep talking, but based on what I am hearing, even that may be a stretch.”

The big question, Axios’ Jonathan Swan writes, is whether the meeting will go well enough for Trump to postpone ratcheting up tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, as he's scheduled to do in January.

What to watch: Ali Wyne of the RAND Corporation argues in Foreign Affairs that there are major national security implications to an economic decoupling: "A China less constrained by and invested in economic ties with the United States could pose a substantially greater challenge to U.S. foreign policy."

Air pollution reduces average life expectancy by 2 years

Globally, air pollution reduces average life expectancy by 1.8 years, according to a new index developed by the University of Chicago. The metric, known as the Air Quality Life Index, or AQLI, attempts to clearly indicate how emissions of tiny particles, called particulates, are having an affect on people's health worldwide.

Why it matters: The report comes at a time when millions in California are being forced to wear protective masks to shield themselves from particulate pollution originating from the state's deadly wildfires. It also comes at the height of smog season in India, a country that ranks high on the list of most-affected nations, according to the new index.

The big picture: Based on the AQLI, which was developed on peer-reviewed studies but has not itself been published in a scientific journal, particulate pollution is the single greatest threat to human health worldwide with regard to life expectancy. It shaves more years off people's lives on average than tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and smoking cigarettes, according to the authors of the new report.

The biggest health threat from power plants, factories and vehicles is what's known as fine particulate matter, or PM2.5 — particles that are so small they can easily be breathed in and lodged deep into the lungs.

Such particles can cause cardiovascular problems, aggravate pre-existing conditions like asthma, and increase mortality from cancer and heart disease.

Details: Researchers created the AQLI in order to better translate traditional warnings of poor air quality into public health impacts.

“The AQLI tells citizens and policymakers how particulate pollution is affecting them and their communities and reveals the benefits of policies to reduce particulate pollution. It takes particulate air pollution concentrations and converts them into perhaps the most important metric that exists — life expectancy.”

— Michael Greenstone, director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, in a press release

According to the newly developed index, people in India would live 4.3 years longer if their country met clean air guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Doing so would move the country's average life expectancy from 69 to 73.

In the U.S., the report found that about one-third of the country's population lives in areas that are not in compliance with WHO guidelines, and that U.S. citizens would live up to a year longer if they were brought into alignment with those figures.